Quick question RE:Token payments

floralaura

Hi, i owe £900 to HSBC, ** solicitors are dealing with it..on the 26th August i offered a full and final settlement of £225. They have rejected this and told me they will knock 20% off the total and thats the least they will take. I have just spoken to them now and explained my circumstances are bad now and going to get worse in the next few weeks and wont have a chance of improving for at least a year. So he said they would accept token payments of £5 a month for a year. Now this i can do, using the £225 i had set aside for them.

My question is do i need to get them to confirm it in a letter to me that the account will be held and action stopped and i wont be harrassed until the 12mths is up?

I am consider accepting this as i also owe £3900 to HSBC and they have W***** debt people dealing with that one..i offered them £500 full and final on the 18/8 and yet to hear back but doing token payments on the other means i can increase this offer to up to £900..but dont want to do it if it means i will still be harrassed by the £900 solicitors for the year.

Any advice would be gratefully accepted, thanks.

Jesthar

Hey Laura

Don't worry about naming the Debt Collection Agencies (DCAs) and their supposed 'solicitors' (who often aren't), many of them are well known on here!

If you don't mind us asking, what were these debts for, what kind of accounts are they (credit card, loan?), and how old are they? Every little detail can help, as it can make a difference to what you can do.

~Jes

floralaura

Hi, the £900 debt is with DG solicitors and the £4k is with wescot..the 900 debt is a credit card and half is charges/fees etc. The 4k is a overdraft of £150..2k is legitimate debt but the other 2k is charges, interest and fees etc. Both from Summer 2007, never paid anything for either of them as had my head firmly wedged in the sand. I have £1000 in my bank which what i was offering to them as full and final settlements..this money is a back payment in tax credits so theres no more that i can raise so its all i have to play with.
Thanks for replying :OD

Jesthar

Hmmm, if it's Summer 2007 there may not be much point in going down the CCA route (thoughts, people?) on the credit card, though it would only cost a couple of pounds. They don't apply to overdrafts, though, I don't think.

However, the good news is you can make a start on reclaiming back all those charges. The credit card charges you can do straight away as they have been ruled unfair; for the bank charges etc. you should submit your claim now, but you won't get anything back until the ongoing court case reaches it's conclusion. See the 'Reclaim 1000s' section of this site for guides on doing this. Can't really give you much help thre myself, as I've never had charges to reclaim, but if you need help ask, there are plenty here who have!

~Jes

worried_jim

Whilst making the token payments (which I recommend) hsbc will continue to take action against you. This means that as the amount is too little for them to formally accept they will continue to pursue recovery as if it is being unpaid. It is all a formality and nothing will be done as the amount you owe is so little, but you may continue to receive letters/phone calls which are intended to get you to pay more by giving you the impression that they will take you to court etc, they won't. Most of these dca companies that contact you are part of hsbc and they just changed the letter heading to give the impression that another company/soliciter is dealing with it.
have you conatacted a debt charity for some good free advice yet?
Good luck getting everything sorted ! Jim.